Marked for Roman Denisov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Roman Denisov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Roman Denisov is living that version at Dinamo Makhachkala, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Makhachkala has to find a result from somewhere.
Market24 Aug 2026
The fee is $210.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. KDV Tomsk drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jan Đapo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Glushkov, and the manager let it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against CSKA Moscow? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market24 Aug 2026
Dinamo Makhachkala have let the market know Nikita Glushkov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KDV Tomsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Aug 2026
Salyut ended it 1‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
KDV Tomsk are taken apart by Salyut — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $210.0K sale of Roman Denisov
He is going to Dinamo Makhachkala, the club has $210.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market24 Aug 2026
KDV Tomsk say no — this time
The offer from Kvant for Dmitry Starodub was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Daniil Kondrakov takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniil Kondrakov provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Roman Denisov has come up in conversations KDV Tomsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nikita Simdyankin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Danilo and KDV Tomsk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Ilja Volnov goes
Leningradets paid $40.0K and KDV Tomsk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
60 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Fernando Macedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Roman Denisov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roman Denisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KDV Tomsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 23 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxim Palienko and KDV Tomsk agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Nikita Simdyankin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Danilo for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. KDV Tomsk will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match1 Aug 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Maxim Palienko will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at KDV Tomsk escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market3 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Maxim Palienko pops up at the right end — 7.88
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikita Simdyankin and KDV Tomsk agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. KDV Tomsk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.